This graph shows the average use of ecstasy for boys and girls in grades 8th, 10th, and 12th during 1999-2000. It shows that boys used it more in 8th grade than girls as well as 10th grade. Although 12th grade girls used it more than 12th grade boys. This is really interesting to me, and I'm not sure why it the growth of ecstasy usage changed for girl in their senior year. If we get a blog that's pretty open to what we wanna write about, I'd like to investigate why this is.

This data is complete and would make people wonder more about senior girls after looking at this graph. This graph could definitely throw someone off if they just assumed boys did more ecstasy than girls like I did. I learned that you shouldn't judge a group of people because of their gender, race of anything you should get to someone for the kind of person they are. They could be churlish and a drug addict, but you'd never guess that because they dressed nicely, or they could look innocent, be diffident, and do great in school and also be a drug addict. I'm sure most of the girls that use ecstasy were good students and weren't obvious about their bad decisions.



Source

"Google Image Result for http://www.drugabuse.gov/NIDA_notes/NNVol16N2/MDMA.gif." Google Images. Ed. The National Institute on Drug Abuse. Web. 24 Nov. 2009.

Whats New?

Examining The Effects of Ecstasy Use In Young Adults

I found an article called Examining the Effects of Ecstasy Use In Young Adults on google, and the I chose it because it relates to what I've been learning about ecstasy. I've wanted to know what it does to your brain and how it turns kids diffident after they're happy, and this article talks about researchers wanting to find out the same information.

The researchers in this article are conducting an experiment on young adults to see how ecstasy use leads to brain damage. One of the facts in this article states that, "seretonin is a key neurotransmitter in the brain that is known for regulating mood and for playing a role in cognitive functions such as memory. Low levels of seretonin have been linked to anxiety and depression." I've already learned this and this is just a source to back up that thought. Another fact is that ecstasy is a chemically enhanced drug that is part hallucinogen and part stimulant that affects the seretonin system, which is very believable.

There's one opinion in this article I highly agree with. One of the researchers said,"Ecstasy use continues to be a major public health problem among adolescents and young adults." I believe ecstasy use continues to grow because none of the users are educated what it does to their brains and body. I think if there was a set agreement between researchers and scientists about the damage it causes and then posted on the internet, people would have a different outlook on it. Maybe not, but kids think it's not deleterious when it is. Researcher Medina also states, "It's not used all that often, but it can cause a lot of damage." I personally don't think she should be stating this without all the research, I know it's a man made drug and it does cause damage like every other drug but it might not be as severe as she thinks.

After reading this article, none of the information was really new to me considering we've been doing so much research on our topic. I would be interested to see if they follow up on this study to see what they find out, because every scientist has a different opinion, and I think if could be extremely beneficial to my blog if I determine what harmful effects ecstasy has on the human body.

Source :]

Fuller, Dawn. "Examining The Effects Of Ecstasy Use In Young Adults: UC Researchers Awarded Federal Grant." Medical News Today: Health News. Web. 20 Nov. 2009. .

Vocabulary

-Kids that do ecstasy are usually very churlish on the come down the next day because they are angry and depressed. The drug maximized their serention and once that's gone, all the feelings left like anger and depression are then maximized.

-People that deal ecstasy never really stay in one place they usually circumnavigate the world, because they don't want to get to well known by people, and they want to make new customers.

-Ecstasy is a deleterious effect on people's body, because it's made with nasty chemicals that should never be put in your body.

-At raves, kids are anything but diffident because ecstasy makes them friendly and wanting to make friends with strangers.

-At a rave people tend to be very feckless and lose their cell phones, or a lot of money because they aren't paying attention the only thing they are doing is dancing.

-If the cops have suspicion that kids are selling ecstasy, kids tend to have a lot of hubis because they don't want to be nice and give them too much information.

-Kids on ecstasy aren't jejune because they want to tell everyone their life story, and they want to party and dance.

-A lot of drug dealers that sell ecstasy have incontrovertible sale prices, because that's how they gain profit.

-If a women that's pregnant takes ecstasy, it will destroy some of the babies chromosome.

-Ecstasy enervates your bones after taking too much of it.

I read two articles that argued two different sides of ecstasy. The first article that I read is called A Worry For Ravers: One night of ecstasy could cause brain damage by: Mary Carmichael, and her argument was against ecstasy. She talks about two neurologists who are doing experiments with monkeys by injecting MDMA into them, and they are trying to prove if it harms monkeys it'll harm humans as well. They stated, "If ecstasy could eat away at a monkey, it could do the same to us." Neurologist George Ricaurte is convinced that only after one night of taking ecstasy, it causes brain damage in monkeys. The studies and test done on the monkeys showed it killed the brain cells that produce dopamine. "Dopamine deficiency is linked to cognitive and psychiatric problems, which may partially explain why users feel sad and sluggish after a night out," Ricaurte said. He went on to explain how dopamine deficiency can lead to Parkinson's disease, which is where you can't control some muscle movements. His main conclusion to his article is that monkeys are similar to us, and if it deleterious to monkeys, it will have that same effect on humans.

The second article I read was called Ecstasy: A possible new role for a banned club drug by: Eve Conant. Her theory is that using MDMA on cancer patients could be the cure to confronting their fears that come with the end of life. Doctors can prescribe antidepressants, but for some it's not enough, which is why using a more powerful drug could be the answer. "Harvard doctors plan to start testing MDMA in 12 terminally ill cancer patients with moderate or severe anxiety as soon as the DEA grants approval," Conant stated. Conant continued to say how is South Carolina; studies have already taken place on cancer patients using MDMA. "Our hypothesis is that MDMA lowers fear and increases trust, a combination that allows patients to revisit trauma in a therapeutic way," says principal psychiatrist Michael Mithoefer. It helps cancer patients, rape victims, and anyone traumatized compromise with themselves and cope with the severe problem that attacked them. He also thinks that it helps people express their fears more openly and not keep it bundled up inside. "I thought of MDMA as the rave drug," says Shuster (another psychiatrist). "But the more I read, the more I realized this was a scientific question worth asking."

These are two extremely two different articles, one stating how ecstasy causes brain damage, and the other stating how ecstasy could be the new cure for cancer patients, rape victims, or anyone that has been traumatized. Both of these articles could convince someone and make their decision go either way.


Sources
Carmichael, Mary. "Gale Cengage Product Failure." GaleNet. Web. 13 Nov. 2009. .

Contant, Eve. "Gale Cengage Product Failure." GaleNet. Web. 13 Nov. 2009. .

I watched A Mid-Summer Nights Rave for my movie review and everything I've been learning about ecstasy, this movie backed up all my information. I've been reading about why kids love it ecstasy and raves so much, and this movie proved my point in 3 different ways, along with showing the scary side of raves, which most kids haven't encountered. Although, it contradicts something that I've learned about raves as well.

Puck, who was gay and was the one who was dealing ecstasy to everyone at the rave was given special yellow glowing ecstasy pills and was told that they were extremely potent. This movie was very pointless and there was no plot. It showed how ecstasy bonds people and makes them want to have a passionate connection. "You have really nice eyes." "Really? You think I have nice eyes?" Yeah, I do, I think they're beautiful." This was the conversation between two straight guys who just sat down next to each other and felt like they could confined in each other. This is the first piece of evidence that proves my statement.

(This is puck from the paragraph above, and those are the glowing yellow ecstasy pills. )


"I love you so much, I love how I love everything and anyone, and I just love to love, don't you just love to love? Do you love me? Because I love you so much!" was said by another girl who just met this guy and this is how she started out the conversation between the two of them. This shows that even if you are total and complete strangers and you're on ecstasy together, you can become instant lovers or best friends. This is the second thing that proves my opinion statement, because I believe ecstasy is insecurity. Diffident teenagers like to be able to find people who like them and have an excuse to make friends, which is why they attend raves. I think that is the biggest addiction to raves.

(The girl on the left was the girl from the paragraph above who was talking about loving everything.)


"Moreeeeee baseeeeeeeee!!!!!" said nick while he was on five ecstasy pills at this rave. At the past raves he attended, his friends told him he was always taking too much ecstasy and getting out of control. He'd built up a tolerance for ecstasy and when he told himself he was only going to take one ecstasy pill at this rave, his body wouldn't let him. He took one and it gave him a body high and he wanted to feel what he'd felt at the past raves when he took 4 or 5 ecstasy pills, so once again he fell into the feel good addiction and took another one. He found a water bottle and was so hot and dehydrated from dancing he chugged it all, little did he know 3 potent ecstasy pills were in it. This is the last and scary piece of evidence that supports what I've learned about raves. Most of the teenagers that attend raves are going there to meet new people and have a good time but a lot of the time they don't know what kind of pills they're taking or who can be trusted. The teenager who took five pills in the movie was rolling so hard, he couldn't even talk and he was leaning against a 10 foot sub screaming, "More baseee!" at the top of his lungs, because he felt as good as a little kid getting a new puppy for Christmas.

(The guy on the left in the yellow shirt, was the guy talked about in the paragraph above.)

From talking to my friends that have gone to a rave, they said there are policemen everywhere patrolling the site. Although they can't do anything to anyone unless they personally see them eating a pill, or if they have suspicion that you have drugs on you and are trying to distribute them for money. If you're just walking around on ecstasy, they can't do anything about it. In A Mid-Summer Nights Rave though, there are no police until the end when the entire rave gets busted. I'm not sure if the difference is because maybe raves back in the day didn't get patrolled like they do now? Or if someone over dosed or got into a fight back when there were no cops around back in the day, and higher authority thought it was necessary to have them there for safety issues.

I personally loved this movie even though it had no plot. I don't think I've ever agreed with a movie that didn't have a plot, but this was an acception. I would define this movie as a comedy, because most of the characters were hysterical and feckless which made the movie what it was. I wouldn't necessarily recommend this movie to just any person, because they'd probably just turn it off after the first thirty minutes. But if you have a good sense of humor and you're interesting in knowing what a rave looks like, this would be an informing movie for you to watch. Considering there was no plot, the message I got out of it was only that ecstasy bonds people. I don't know if that's a good message to portray to kids and teenagers because it might encourage them to try it. Over all it was extremely helpful for me to see this movie, because now I have that to use as a source in my future blogs.

Source

A Mid-Summer Nights Rave